Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04CARACAS2611
2004-08-13 21:27:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Caracas
Cable title:  

BUSH, CIA, AND THOMAS JEFFERSON "ENEMIES OF

Tags:  KPAO PGOV OPRC KIRC VE 
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UNCLAS CARACAS 002611 

SIPDIS


FOR WHA/PDA,WHA/AND,INR/R/MR,PACE/PR/FPCW/WHA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO PGOV OPRC KIRC VE
SUBJECT: BUSH, CIA, AND THOMAS JEFFERSON "ENEMIES OF
VENEZUELA"


-----------------------------------
SUMMARY
-----------------------------------
UNCLAS CARACAS 002611

SIPDIS


FOR WHA/PDA,WHA/AND,INR/R/MR,PACE/PR/FPCW/WHA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO PGOV OPRC KIRC VE
SUBJECT: BUSH, CIA, AND THOMAS JEFFERSON "ENEMIES OF
VENEZUELA"


--------------
SUMMARY
--------------

1. With the referendum just a couple of days away,
on August 12, President Chavez held a marathon (four-
hour-long) press conference for foreign and
international press. Chavez took every opportunity to
criticize the U.S., its plots against him/Venezuela,
and, more importantly, to tell his audience that the
true battle was between the Bush administration and the
Venezuelan people. The pro-Chavez printed and
electoral media picked up the accusations on the front
page, the latter opening with various articles, among
them one entitled "Bush Will Be Defeated: a sovereign
country or a colony, that is the question." The
opposition press also included articles on the
accusations but several preferred to highlight Chavez'
promise to turn over the government if the referendum
won. End Summary


--------------
CHAVEZ QUESTIONS SECRETARY POWELL'S AUTHORITY TO SET
CONDITIONS
--------------

2. The first question by Jose Carlos Villanueva, "El
Mundo de Espaa," asked for official collaboration of
allegations contained in an article on CIA plots
against Chavez.


3. President Chavez' response is extremely lengthy,
excerpts follow: ". . . We have received some recent
declarations from Washington with attention and
interest; at least it looks like they are reasoning
with a certain level of intelligence, a recognition of
a reality, even as they continue to throw out some
ideas of trampling the sovereignty of Venezuela; or
they really want to trample it [referring to an alleged
State document which alludes to softening of U.S.
policy toward Chavez]. It's one thing to want to
trample and another thing for a sovereign country to
allow itself to be trampled. At this moment, so that I
might respond to your question, it would not surprise
me at all and we are always alert on this front, but at
this time I have no proof, that is outstanding proof,
to prove this, so that my government could affirm it,
so that we and I can affirm it, that the CIA is making
plans. In fact you published the fact that they were
in Chile [referring to media stories of the CIA
director in Chile "allegedly" making plans against
Chavez]. I read the remarks of a Chilean official

denying everything. I believe. I am sure that the
Government of Chile would not allow itself to be used
as a launching pad to attack Venezuela. I am sure."


4. "Nonetheless, it would surprise me and I repeat we
are always on the alert to the activities of the CIA in
Venezuela. They have many ways. The government of the
United States independently from the CIA as a body, as
an interventionist and imperialist arm has been
intervening in Venezuela and we have denounced it, each
time we have had proof of the gross intervention of Mr.
Bush in Venezuela. The financing, for example of coup
groups, the financing of what they call groups that are
working for democracy, it is not that they are working
for democracy but they are working toward
destabilization, they have been working toward
disavowing our constitution."


5. "The Bush administration, and we have proof,
documents, has been financing and spending millions of
dollars to finance the Venezuelan opposition, in fact
for this referendum, for the collection of signatures,
to try to set up parallel bodies to the institutions of
the State. He has supported the Venezuelan opposition
in many ways. That is to say, the Bush administration
will be defeat this Sunday. I believe that they are
trying to wash their hands so that they do not have to
shoulder that defeat. I have always said that the
Venezuelan people's real confrontation in Venezuela it
is not with the opposition. This opposition has a
master who is called Mister George W. Bush. It is from
there that the opposition is controlled. This Sunday
in truth [the question] is not, will Chavez go or will
Chavez stay? What is really being played is whether
Venezuela will continue as a Sovereign State with a
national plan, a plan of comprehensive development or
will Venezuela again turn into a colony receiving
orders from Washington. This is what is being debated
in Venezuela. The government of the United States, as
they say, and their own words have confirmed it; high
officials of the Bush administration have recently
acknowledged, that here in Latin America, that yes they


have been financing the opposition. Brazenly they have
acknowledged it, they violated our laws and the gross
meddling is permanent."


6. "Just yesterday, Mr. Powell was saying that they
[the U.S.] would recognize the results of the
referendum. Who is this Mr. Powell so that he can lay
conditions for the recognition of the results of the
referendum? Venezuela has its institutions, has its
people, we do not need any conditions and, we not only
don't need them, we absolutely reject and categorically
reject them. The conditions are set by our
Constitution, in our laws and criteria, the rules,
which have dictated the electoral arbiter, the
Venezuelan institutionalism, the National Electoral
Council." The response continued.

--------------
EXPECTATIONS OF U.S. - NONE FOR THIS NUMBER ONE ENEMY
OF THE WORLD
--------------

7. President Chavez took every opportunity to
criticize the U.S. (Bush/CIA/military) and highlight
the "fact" that the Bush administration "is controlling
and bankrolling the opposition." At one point he also
said, "We do not expect much from Washington, and it
doesn't really matter just to us, but rather the whole
world, because that government (U.S.) has become the
number one enemy of the world, number one."

--------------
THOMAS JEFFERSON ALSO THE "DEVIL"?
--------------

8. Looking at the historical perspective, Chavez found
roots for the Latin American/Venezuelan clash with the
U.S. and for U.S. imperialism. He argues that Bolivar
did not want to invite the U.S. to the 1829 congress in
Panama because he "prophesized that `The U.S. seems
destined by fate to plague the Americas with misery in
the name of liberty.'" Chavez argued, "He was
justified because Monroe was calling for an America for
the Americans and Thomas Jefferson was saying that the
U.S. should progressively absorb all the emerging
nations, absorbing them, swallowing them. . . so this
liberator of the U.S. began to see us as colonies . . .
he wanted to create an alliance and when this did not
work, they created the Monroe doctrine."

--------------
COMMENT
--------------

9. President Chavez' accusations are not new, nearly
every Sunday Alo Presidente program for the last six
months criticized the Bush administration, the CIA, and
the U.S. ambassador to Caracas. This was Chavez' last
opportunity to depict the referendum as a struggle
between the Venezuelan people and the Bush
administration, in order to cash in on the nationalism
of the Venezuelan audience, much more than the 134
accredited foreign press.
Shapiro


NNNN
2004CARACA02611 - UNCLASSIFIED